Benin Swears In Former Finance Minister As President
Benin entered a new political chapter on Sunday as Romuald Wadagni, the country’s former finance minister, was officially sworn in as president at the Palais des Congrès in Cotonou, succeeding his long-time mentor and former boss, Patrice Talon, who stepped down after a decade in power.
The 49 year old economist, widely regarded as a technocrat embodying continuity with Talon’s two mandates, secured a decisive mandate at the April 12 polls, polling more than 94 percent of the votes cast, according to results published after the election. His sole challenger, Paul Hounkpe, lost by a wide margin, and Hounkpe’s party subsequently aligned with Wadagni’s party in the National Assembly, consolidating the new president’s legislative footing.
Notably absent from the contest was the country’s main opposition party, the Democrats, which was unable to field a candidate due to insufficient endorsements and internal divisions, according to reports by AFP. The exclusion has remained a point of contention among observers monitoring Benin’s democratic trajectory.
Taking the oath of office before dignitaries and citizens who followed the ceremony on large screens, Wadagni pledged accountable leadership.
“I will serve Benin with integrity, courage and commitment,” he declared, adding, “I will serve with the constant knowledge that power is never a personal privilege.”
The new president inherits a West African nation that has recorded robust economic growth over the past decade but continues to grapple with deep inequality and rising insecurity in its northern regions, where attacks have been attributed to jihadist groups, principally the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM), Al Qaeda’s Sahel branch.
Wadagni’s tenure as finance minister spanned ten years, during which Benin’s public finances were restructured and the fiscal deficit trimmed by a third to settle at three percent of GDP, according to AFP’s reporting on his economic record. That record is expected to anchor investor confidence as he begins a seven year term, following a constitutional amendment passed last year that extended the presidential mandate from five to seven years. The two term limit remains in force.
Beyond the economy, the new president signalled a hardened security posture.
“Benin will not give in to fear nor complacency. The government will be firm against all those who threaten our unity and security,” Wadagni said in his inaugural address.
His government also faces the delicate task of repairing strained diplomatic relations with neighbouring Niger and Burkina Faso, both currently under military rule and themselves engaged in protracted battles against Islamist militants seeking territorial expansion across the Sahel.
A subtle but significant gesture of thawing relations came on Sunday, when Niger’s Prime Minister, Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine, attended the inauguration and was received with applause, according to AFP. Nigeria’s Vice President, Kashim Shettima, also travelled to Cotonou to represent President Bola Tinubu at the ceremony.
AFP